DigitalMediaTrends.com

The Coming Ad Revolution

While the big news in the online world focuses on Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft, a more profound revolution is taking place on the online social networks: The discussion about privacy is changing as users take control over their own online data. While they spread their Web presence, these users are not looking for privacy, but for recognition as individuals -- whether by friends or vendors. This will eventually change the whole world of advertising. More ..

MySpace Ad Targeting Unveiled This Week

Why are social networks considered such a goldmine for advertisers? Because their users input nothing but personal data. However, finding the right tool to leverage social network data has proved to be difficult. MySpace, the world's largest social network with 110 million active users, aims to take full advantage of its rich user data bank by implementing a new set of targeting tools for advertisers. This week, MySpace execs are expected to shed light on the results of a program testing the new behavioral targeting system, which increases the likelihood that a user will click on an ad by 80%--effectively increasing its revenue per month from $40 million to $70 million, executives said. At a Merrill Lynch conference on Tuesday, Peter Levinsohn, president of Fox Interactive Media, noted the "phenomenal" amount of data MySpace has, saying, "We have an opportunity to provide advertisers with a completely new paradigm." More ...

Facebook Confirms New Ad Plan

A new advertising system on Facebook gives marketers access to an unprecedented amount of information that its users reveal about themselves. The idea is to ultimately devise a system that predicts what products and services users might be interested in before they know it. Unnamed sources say the new behavior targeting plan, set to be unveiled this fall, is the company's top priority moving forward. Facebook declined to discuss specifics. The same sources said the social networking giant is trying to achieve what Google did with AdWords, allowing advertisers to buy groups of people with similar interests using enhanced, targeted technology. Right now, advertisers can only target by age, gender and location; the new technology would add stated user interests, such as music, activities, sports, etc. Instead of selling simple banner ads by category, marketing messages will appear in user, group and company news feeds. Facebook advertisers can already create their own pages and send out messages via news feeds in a separate, but vaguely described three-month marketing campaign. The new program is about pushing relevant marketing items onto users' pages. The company thinks the new initiative will be a less labor-intensive way to take advantage of the personal data people reveal on the site. More ...

MySpace Targets Ads to Profile Info

While Fox Interactive Media executives have often held MySpace is a “gold mine” of powerful information, it has struggled to use it effectively to target ads. That’s beginning to change, according to an interview at Silicon Alley Insider with FIM chief revenue officer Michael Barrett. The social network giant this month began testing a program that lets advertisers target lifestyle information its users post in their profiles. It has started using house ads in broad categories, like auto and fashion, but Barrett said when the program is released broadly in fall, it could grow to 100 segments. More ...

Microsoft patent envisions individually-targeted TV commercials

Microsoft hopes to help advertisers provide more targeted advertising toward specific TV viewers by providing more personal information about those sitting in front of the screen. In a newly-published patent application, Microsoft describes several methods that would allow for the collection of viewer data—some a little more personal than others—that could then be transmitted to the advertiser. The data would be used to generate personalized commercials on the fly for each and every individual user. More ...